i'm 100% with doghousemom. it's like she read my mind. putting a blank piece of wood on the front after removing the faux colonial wood would be easy. measure, go to lowes/home depot and ask the nice man in the lumber department to cut 2 pieces that size. take them home and wood glue them in place. done and done. not hard or time consuming and not expensive either. good luck! underneath it all there are good bones.

What wood? It looks like hard rock maple. If so, be sure to do proper prepping before you paint and use a base coat so the paint will stick good. Maple has such fine grain paint doesn't like it so much. Personally, I am like you, don't care for light woods, I would refinish it in Minwax Dark Walnut mixed with a touch of Red Mahagony (my personal favorite stain recipe LOL). The drawers could be jazzed up a bit with some wood carvings from Van Dykes or Rocklers to give it a bit of pizzazz.